Physical Geology lecture - Geologic resources and economic geology

Physical Geology lecture - Geologic resources and economic geology.

If you are studying from home I highly suggest you try to answer the questions yourself before linking to my answers for the simple reason you will end up understanding the material better.

What are major groups of geologic resources? Answer.

A view of ore deposits as a geologic anomaly:

could mine common rock for most any metal, but uneconomic because of low concentration.
Clarke concentration number = ratio of ore % versus average crustal abundance.
fractal distribution of ore body size and frequency and also distribution.

What are the geologic concentration processes that produce ore anomalies? Answer.

Energy resources

What are the various types of geologic energy resources? Answer.

What are the geologic requirements for formation of oil and gas deposits? Answer.

How do we explore for oil and gas? Answer.

Conditions of formation of coal?

euxinic long lived swamps.
where would you find coal forming today?

Photograph of oil drilling rig in Oklahoma in 1981, during the oil crunch, when exploration was vigorous.

Ground water as a basic resource.

How much water can the ground hold? Answer.

What are the physics of fluid flow through rocks? Answer.

How does groundwater connect to the rest of the hydrologic cycle? Answer.

Examples of aquifers.

confined vs. unconfined.
perched aquifers.
infinite variety.

Deal with this topic a lot more detail in GEOL 1010, Environmental Geology.

Dowsing.

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